Chapter 2: Swooning
by Obake Kai
Summary: A few years have passed since that single moment and today Sasuke is gone, Naruto and Sakura and Kakashi are under Tsunade's leadership and Naruto never forgot that moment...did Kakashi or has it blossomed deep with him as well?


Chapter Two: A single moment

5 years later…

Years have passed since that fateful day outside the ninja academy; Naruto has since grown, become stronger, a little smarter and grows more determined to become Hokage with each passing day.

His assignment to Team 7 has been a rollercoaster of emotions, skills and personal problems.

Today he is walking up the stairs in the Hokage Mansion toward the library with Sakura Haruno and Kakashi Hatake.

"Bet you 500 yen that Granny's not even in her office right now," Naruto says as he, Sakura and Kakashi make their way to the library next to the Hokage's office.

"You really shouldn't keep calling her that Naruto, I swear sometimes I think you like making her mad, don't you respect her at all?" Sakura said.

"No, I don't because when she's not running from her work she's finding ways to push it off onto other people and she takes a vacation! I still can't believe that they made someone like her Hokage-!" His statement was cut off by Sakura's fist colliding with the top of his head and he hit the floor.

"Now I don't think I heard you right, you want to run that by me again Naruto?" she growled with her fist tightly clenched for another blow.

Kakashi stepped forward and put a hand on Sakura's head, "Now Sakura, let's not knock him out, we need him to help us today."

Sakura's cheeks turned pink with embarrassment and nodded as they continued up the stairs. Each step made a light squeak save for the 3 near the top that remained quiet; the hall before them was clean and well kept. Even paint coats on the walls making them orange-red and a golden rod border.

The buildings shape made the hall almost loop around like a swirl going upward, they made a turn and found double doors with a beautiful dragon on the front. The wood itself was painted a light pine green, the dragons scales were deep emerald green with red flames all around it, it's eyes a bright yellow almost glowing in the sunlight filtering in from the open doors and windows.

Upon opening the doors sheen of dust fell from the ceiling and Naruto and Sakura gaped at the horrid condition of the room. Cobwebs and dust everywhere and Sakura shrieked when she thought she saw a rat scurry across the floor.

"Well here we are, let's get started." Kakashi said cheerfully.

"What are we doing again?" Naruto said squatting next to Sakura and staring blankly into the room.

"We're here to sort things out so that finding things will be easier for lady Tsunade, so basically we're sorting the shelves and dusting." He said in his typical mellow tone voice.

Naruto and Sakura groaned and the three split up and started dusting and sorting. Sakura actually dug out a clipboard, paper and a pen and began making a log for everything while Kakashi blankly dusted a shelf with a brown feather duster and what appeared to be a worn out copy of "Make out Paradise" in his hands.

Naruto was two shelves away trying to pile all the books from the top shelf into his arms at once. Sakura was 6 shelves in the opposite direction, carefully cataloging a big brown book.

Naruto was audibly struggling to reach that top shelf without climbing on the bookcase; at least he was _kind of_ thinking.

"Naruto, don't you think it'd be easier to just-"

"Nope; I can do this and I am gonna get this whole shelf done with one trip to the pile." He says with a point at a pile of books beside Sakura.

"Why do we have a pile?" Kakashi asked squeezing the bridge of his nose.

Sakura answered instead. "I said just to gather the books off the shelf and bring them over here so I can sort them myself, he can dust and fix the shelves if need be."

Kakashi just sighed and continued dusting. As Naruto reached up for that last book he lost his balance and fell into the book shelf but pushed back, dropping everything and knocking the shelf into tipping back and forth once then start falling toward Naruto. Kakashi rushed to his side but couldn't stop the heavy metal shelf or the several heavy books that toppled down on their heads.

Sakura heard the crash and ran over to the big shelf that now almost tented over her sensei and teammate. "Kakashi Sensei, Naruto; are you alright?"

"Just fine Sakura, could you maybe find us a broom and perhaps a hammer and nails because this very large shelf seems to have crushed the smaller wooden shelf behind us."

"Sure thing, I'll go look." She set the clipboard down and ran out.

Under the shelf Kakashi's body acted as a tent over Naruto's smaller body; shielding him from the shelf and broken wood.

"Uh…thanks Kakashi Sensei, what happened?"

"You didn't listen to me…again. You won't get anywhere like this, you've got to learn to take direction."

"I take direction all the time; I just chose to do this differently. A good Hokage doesn't always use the same old tricks; he's got to be different!"

"Yes I know, but you'll never make the _whole wide world_ peaceful if you can't take simple direction." Kakashi said then noticed a strange look come over Naruto's eyes.

"You…" he said in a hushed tone. "It was you…"

"What…what are you talking about?"

"That day…I was just a kid, it was you that told me I'd never become Hokage if I kept skipping class and being selfish." His eyes were wide, deep sapphire blue.

Kakashi's grey eyes softened a little as he stared at him. "You remembered that day all that time ago?"

"Of course…it's why I changed the reason why I wanted to become Hokage. I want respect and to bring peace to the village, I want to be strong and I want love." He held his breath after saying those last words.

Their eyes held a steady gaze for who knows how long, Naruto felt a flutter in his chest as Kakashi's gaze suddenly flickered from softness to something else, an almost fond look came into his eyes.

"Kakashi Se-"he cut himself off then looked at him seriously. "Kakashi…I-"

At the sound of footsteps approaching Kakashi pushed himself as far from Naruto as he could get, which at the moment was arm's length above him.

"I found the broom but a Shinobi down stairs said to just throw out the shelf, they had meant to replace a few of the shelves in here so we should be careful."

"A little late for that isn't it?" Naruto said under his breath.

In one swift movement, the large bookshelf was lifted off of them and raised above Sakura's head. "COME AGAIN?!" she yelled and Naruto cowered under Kakashi who seemed to smile at Sakura.

"Well thank you Sakura, my shoulder has been bothering me. That would have been a hassle to lift on my own. Well done,"

Sakura's glare changed to a cheeky little smile and she set the shelf down gently. "OH, you're welcome Kakashi Sensei."

Naruto stayed seated on the floor as Kakashi picked up his book and started walking toward a waste bin in the corner of the room. "Let's clean this up."

As they did that, Naruto pondered the heat that had spread out on his cheeks and brought the butterfly in his heart to life. The look in Kakashi's eyes, he only ever saw that in one other place…that place was in Sakura's eyes, every time she looked at Sasuke while he had still been there…a look of longing, love and caring. He'd stared at Kakashi because of the fluttering and he'd stared back because he was swooning…over Naruto?


End file.
